A good shot of Louisiana hot sauce may cut the risk of infection from raw oysters and other seafood, a researcher reported Monday.
Dr. Kenneth Aldridge of Louisiana State University told the American Society of Microbiology that Tabasco sauce, made from red peppers and vinegar, was able to kill Vibrio organisms that sometimes accompany seafood harvested from oyster-growing areas off the coast of Louisiana.Aldridge tested the ability of commonly used condiments - pepper sauce, horseradish, lemon juice and ketchup - to kill the Vibrio organisms.
Tabasco was the winner by a furlong, killing all of the Vibrio bacteria in less than a minute when used at full strength.
Most of the types of Vibrio in this study do not cause disease in healthy people, but they can be dangerous for those whose immune systems are depressed from cancer chemotherapy or AIDS.
The risk of disease from these germs once led to conflict between the Louisiana and California health departments over California's attempt to put warning labels on Louisiana oysters.
But Aldridge also found that Tabasco kills a dangerous Vibrio - the one causing the cholera epidemic currently ravaging parts of Latin America. Furthermore, the LSU researchers found evidence that the hot sauce wipes out several other bacteria that sometimes contaminate food, including E. coli, the bacteria linked to Jack-in-the-Box hamburgers; salmonella, spread in raw and undercooked eggs; and shigella, which causes severe diarrhea.
"Tabasco had the greatest activity of all the hot sauces we tested, and I certainly put it on my own oysters," said Aldridge, adding that he conducted the study to satisfy his own curiosity.